YouTube prank forces Domino’s Pizza franchise to close

The owner of a North Carolina Domino’s Pizza franchise that gained worldwide notoriety after two employees posted several gross videos on YouTube lost so much business because of the prank that he had to close up shop.

The franchise in Conover, N.C., shut its doors last week, according to the local Hickory Daily Record. “My business was off 58 percent because of YouTube,” owner Kevin Hendren told the paper.

Back on April 13, five video clips showing a Domino’s Pizza employee performing unsavory acts with food showed up on YouTube. The videos, shot and posted by a second employee, became Internet sensations.

Bloggers uncovered the identities of the employees, Kristy Hammonds, 31, and Michael Setzer, 32, who were arrested and charged with felony food tampering.

Meanwhile, using social media tools, Domino’s officials tried fighting the fire with fire by posting their own YouTube video denouncing the acts.

But as it turned out, the damage had already been done, Domino’s spokesman Tim McIntyre said in an e-mail.

“Try as he might, the franchisee couldn’t get enough people to come back and the store was no longer viable,” McIntyre said. “In their attempt to be funny, they left a lot of victims in their wake – the business owner, 20 of their fellow co-workers who are now out of work, community groups that benefited from the store’s outreach programs, on and on.”